Upper Canada women and the War of 1812

Upper Canada women and the War of 1812

My maternal ancestors were left alone during the War of 1812-14. Left alone to face the invading enemy, the Americans. Their men were serving in the 3rd Lincoln militia. The two women and their children took over all the duties of running the household and farm chores.

They experienced the stresses of an enemy invasion and in my ancestor’s case, three times. They watched as their personal possessions were stolen and in some cases destroyed. Official records from the National Archives in Ottawa provided the following personal records:

Catharine (Bowen) Plato, wife of Sergeant Peter James Plato and her daughter-in-law Mary Jane (Benner) Plato, wife of Private Christian 2nd Plato were left alone on the Plato farm on Bertie Road farm with their children.

The Americans came first in 1812. The Plato farm consisted of 200 acres at that time. Forests had been cut and farm acerage was made over the years. Plantings had been done when the Americans crossed the Niagara river and pillaged the Bertie countryside. Imagine the two women as the soldiers on horseback entered the farm. How terrifying was the scene! This is an official list from the National Archives of what they took that first time from the Plato farm:

• 3 head of cattle 3 years old

• 1 horse (stallion)

• 1 horse (6 years old)

• 1 horse (3 years old)

• 1 horse (20 years old)

• 1 saddle

• 3 bridles

The American army did not stay long this first year of the war. They retreated back across the river but they would return to seize the Niagara Peninsula and they did in 1813 and 1814. This time it was burn and destroy crops on the Plato farm and other area farms:

Hogs ( 2 sows and sucklings)

1 heifer

• 10 acres of buckwheat destroyed

• 5 acres of Indian corn destroyed

• 1 acre of potatoes taken

• 4 acres of oats destroyed

• 5 acres of wheat destroyed

• 3 tons of hay destroyed

• 1 Barn and two outer buildings burned

Get the picture? Thank goodness the women and children, we believe, were unharmed. There is no record of personal abuse of them by the marauding Americans. In the Siege of Fort Erie in 1814 by British troops and local militias the Platos, father and son, returned home. The 19TH Dragoons and the Glengarry Highlanders were posted on the Plato farm until the end of the War. Never again would Canadian women suffer the pains of wartime invasions until the Fenian Raid of 1866.

The British government awarded the Platos with a good payment for their registered official losses.